Travellers have been warned about "serious flaws" on a government coronavirus travel testing website - with prices found to be misleading and some firms offering no testing services at all.
Which? looked at the ten cheapest providers of tests for people entering the UK from an amber list country, with prices ranging between £60 to £98 at the end of May.
However, some of these companies turned out to be much more expensive than their initial listings suggested.
Which? noted how on May 25, the three cheapest providers on the list appeared to be Biograd Diagnostics (£60), Screen4 (£60) and Book A Travel Test (£79.99).
But these prices turned out to be either for booking one at-home test, or for booking a single test carried out in a clinic, rather than both Day 2 and Day 8 tests that are needed when returning from an amber list country.
After Which? contacted the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the prices for tests from these providers were amended.
They now show their costs as ranging from £100 to £160 and don’t appear in the top 10 cheapest providers.
Both Biograd Diagnostics and Screen4 told Which? that there was an issue with how the DHSC recorded price information.
The investigation also found some test providers listed on the government website that were not actually offering testing services.
At the beginning of June, the list included five providers – 01 Test, 1010 Labs, Expert Medicals, Nationwide Testing, and Star Medicals – that appeared to be linked.
The labs claimed to charge between £85 and £89 for the tests needed to return from an amber country.
However, three of those companies - 01 Test, Nationwide Testing and Star Medicals - provided little information about their services and did not answer calls to the numbers they provided.
Expert Medicals went on to tell Which? that while it was due to start working with them, the companies had not yet started offering tests.
The new Gov.uk travel tests website has been designed to work in the same way as comparison websites.
It was launched last month as part of the new holiday traffic light system to help customers find the best prices for test.
For “green” countries, you need to take a pre-departure test before you return to England, as well as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on or before day two of your arrival back home.
With “amber” destinations, you need to take three tests - one pre-departure, and then PCR tests on day two and day eight after arriving home.
You’re then required to self-isolate for 10 days after arrival although you can choose to pay for a fourth test on day five, and if it comes back negative they can leave quarantine early.
People travelling to “red countries” must quarantine for 10 days in a hotel at £1,750 a head.
They must also take three tests - the same as the amber group - and cannot pay for a separate test to get out of quarantine early.
For “green” countries, you need to take a pre-departure test before you return to England, as well as a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on or before day two of your arrival back home.
Destinations included in this category are Portugal, Gibraltar, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, plus several small remote islands that are British Overseas Territories.
However, entry to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei and the Faroe Islands is severely restricted.
Rory Boland, Which? travel editor, said: “Weeks on from some international travel being allowed to resume, it’s very concerning to still be uncovering such serious problems with the government’s testing system for travellers.
“As it stands, travellers risk being left at the mercy of rogue operators who, at best, attempt to profiteer off of those looking for testing services to allow them to travel, and at worst, risk leaving them out of pocket for services that don’t even exist.
“The government needs to urgently sort out these problems before mass travel resumes, or it will create chaos for travellers who have to rely on the system.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We carefully monitor issues raised by the public and raise complaints with private test providers directly.
“The government regularly evaluates all providers’ performance, including their delivery and test turnaround times.
“Providers who do not meet the minimum standards set by DHSC and reviewed by the independent United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), or where our monitoring highlights concerns about their customer service performance, are removed from the gov.uk travel test list.
“Additionally, providers may not appear on the list where they are temporarily out of stock.”
